Airing a concession diss track and admitting his defeat after the number of subscribers for T-Series soared much beyond his, Felix ridiculed India for its poverty and caste system in the video.
As the ding-dong internet battle rages on for the top spot on YouTube, Felix "PewDiePie" currently has bounced back with a lead over T-Series by at least 0.4 million subscribers, thanks to his latest video lampooning the Indian music label, and also Indians.
As of today, PewDiePie has 93,068,437 subscribers, and T-Series 92,667,581 subscribers.
After T-Series defeated PewDiePie to take the YouTube crown following their months’ long war on the online platform, the Swedish YouTube sensation came out with a new video on his channel, titled “Congratulations”. In the music video, the 29-year-old Swedish YouTuber has not only derided T-Series but taken pot shots at India's social and economic conditions.
In the four-minute long video posted earlier this week, Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg "PewDiePie" accused T-series of setting up its brand by selling pirated songs.
Airing a concession diss track and admitting his defeat after the number of subscribers for T-Series soared much beyond his, Felix ridiculed India for its poverty and caste system in the video.
"India got YouTube figured out...How about next you figure how to fix the caste system... May be all those ads will solve your crippling poverty," PewDiePie said in his video.
Currently trending on #28 on YouTube, the video has added a bitter note to the online war. The neck-to-neck competition between the two leading YouTube channels began to appear more like an India-VS-Sweden fray, going by the comments from followers of both the sides on YouTube.
"Indians are poo poo in their brains"—go the lyrics of the video.
"The video shows PewDiePie is a poor loser," say those keenly following the war.
But this is not the first time the Swedish YouTuber has mocked Indians.
In August 2018, when PewDiePie started to recognize the rising competition from T-Series, Felix urged his fans to support his channel. It was when he began with a subtle "Subscribe to PewDiePie" request and eventually, started promoting the channel rather aggressively.
Nevertheless, the YouTube war between two houses (House T-Series and House PewDiePie) intensified, and in fact, took an interesting turn with supporters jumping in the fray and choosing their respective sides.
In January this year, a 19-year-old YouTube star Ajey Nagar "Carryminati" aired a video "Bye PewDiePie", taking a dig on the rival's "Bitch Lasagna" video where Felix had criticised Indians for their incorrect English grammar and inappropriate messages to American women.
In another incident, PewDiePie had mocked a daily soap produced by Ekta Kapoor. She, in an outrage, tweeted a link, sharing more of her content with Felix.
On the other hand, the phrase "Subscribe to PewDiePie" started to trend as some prominent YouTubers like Ethan Klein bought the billboards in Times Square and flashed the phrase on the shiny wall of the busy streets. The phrase, in fact, formed into a meme and led to a number of hacking incidents, including The Brooklyn War Memorial which was defaced with "Subscribe to PewDiePie", according to a report by Polygon.
In an ugly side to the conflict, the Christchurch Mosque shooter had used the phrase "Subscribe to PewDiePie" in his live stream before slaughtering over 50 people.
Now again, Felix has turned the war -- which could have been light-hearted and fun -- ugly with personal comments, like accusing T-Series owner Bhushan Kumar of tax evasion and selling pirated music videos.
As the subscriber numbers of the two channels keep fluctuating, and it looks like continuing for a long time, it will keep followers hooked on to the war, which some have derisively described as “the Third World War”.